Memorabilia
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and twenty-nine: Will and Emma go through boxes of souvenirs from Will's Glee Club days.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cycle. Now here's cycle 7!_

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**"Memorabilia"  
Will/Emma  
Sequel to Precursor**

It was shortly after the show they'd put on, with the other McKinley Glee Clubs, that Emma had asked him if he'd hung on to anything from that time, saying how it could be fun for the kids to see. Will considered the idea, uncertain. "Are you afraid they'll make fun of you?" she teased… dared.

"Fine," he pointed. "You're on. Bring those archive tapes?" he bowed his head.

"Alright," she smiled.

On Friday evening, Emma had gone to Will's bearing her laptop for the videos, and dinner she'd prepared. As it heated up in the oven, Emma sat at the dining room table with her laptop. Will brought over a couple of boxes and placed them on the table.

"Wow, that's a lot of things you held on to," she laughed.

"My mother," he explained. "I went to get these during lunch."

"Well that's very sweet of her to have held on to them."

"Yeah. It was mostly her at first, but I guess she rubbed off on me." He paused to think. "When I moved out, she agreed to hang on to them for me. I always thought one day I'd have my own home and then I'd bring all those things there…" He didn't bring up Terri, but he didn't have to. In an effort not to let the awkwardness hang in the air and spread any further, Emma opened the laptop.

"I think this one's my favorite," she spoke innocently as she cued up one of the videos. When the music came through the laptop speakers, Will looked up and laughed. He walked around to look over Emma's shoulder and watch with her.

"That was my first solo in competition. Marcus Finley spent the whole ride trying to psych me out." They watched young Will on the screen.

"Doesn't look to me like it worked," she smiled up at him. He smiled back, kissing the top of her head.

"It didn't. I'd been waiting too long," he spoke and she looked back to the screen, beaming.

"Look at him, he's frustrated but he's trying to hide it," she pointed.

"Marcus Finley doesn't throw a performance," he held up a finger. "True quote," he nodded.

"Oh," she nodded back, then laughed. As they moved on to another video, they were treated to an April solo, backed up by the O'Donnell twins. "You know what this reminds me of?" she tilted her head.

"Quinn, Santana, and Brittany?" he nodded.

"Yes!" she smirked. "I guess some things never change, do they?"

"Some things," he agreed. After the video was done, he moved to open the first of two boxes. "Programs," he pulled out a stack of thin booklets.

"Oh…" she held out her hands and he handed them to her. She looked through them as he continued going through the box.

"Trophies," he announced. Emma put the programs aside and got up to go take a look with him.

"That's a lot of golden plastic," she looked in the box, then up at him as he chuckled.

"Well the big ones stayed with the school, of course," he nodded.

"I like the little trophies though," she picked up a couple of them to inspect. "They all mean the same thing as the big ones and you won't strain a muscle," she nodded. "You know, I could shine these for you."

"Thanks. But they're staying in the box anyway," he shrugged.

"No reason they shouldn't be shiny," she pointed out.

"Good point," he smiled at her. He looked back into the box and almost gasped. "You're going to love this."

"What?" she looked. He pulled out a photo album and indicated for them to sit.

"One birthday, I got a camera, so I started taking it with me on trips to and at competitions. Part of it was so I could show my parents, but at the same time, I wanted to hold on to this…" he opened the album and Emma looked in.

"Wild bunch!" she gasped, and he laughed.

"You just imagine, we only have twelve kids in New Directions, we had forty back in my day, the bus… it was loud, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."

They put the album aside when the timer on the oven rang. Emma went to check on dinner and returned with two filled plates a minute later. Will continued to treat her to stories as they ate, inspired by the memories brought back through the photos.

They were just finishing when there was a knock at the door. They looked at one another, wondering who it might be. Will got up to answer, as Emma went on eating. "Emma…" she heard Will and looked up. She paused.

"Terri… Hi…" she put her fork down. None of them looked anywhere near comfortable.

"I'll be right back," Will assured Emma before leading Terri in the kitchen. Emma watched them go, then looked down at her plate. She'd wait until he returned before continuing. Sitting there trying not to make herself listen hard enough to hear what was happening in the kitchen, she saw the discarded programs and switched chairs to go look through them.

To each one was inscribed the date, the songs they had done. There were asterisks next to what she assumed were his solos.

She picked up one of them and she paused… This was her high school; he had performed there… She looked to the date, and further came to see she'd been attending it at the time, she'd probably been there… she looked at the songs, and she knew in an instant which night that was…

It was the night she'd met that boy, the one who'd lost his lucky medallion. She'd found it while sitting outside, waiting for her brother to pick her up. When he'd come looking for it, she'd returned it to him. They'd had this small little moment, never even knowing one another's names, and for so many years after that, she'd held it as the most romantic piece of time in her life…

Holding the program in her hand, she paused, feeling something tucked into the booklet. She turned the pages, and there was the thing she'd felt.

It was smaller than she'd remembered, but that was it… the medallion. It all made sense now. The loudmouth who'd interrupted them, that was Marcus Finley. And the boy… the sweet guy who'd left her sitting with a big smile until her brother finally came… That was Will. She sat there staring at the medallion, lost for breath.

THE END


End file.
